Entrepreneurial Solutions to Insoluble Problems - Tides Canada

Growing OpportunityConclusions & Next Steps‘Over the last 25 years,the citizen sector hasbecome as entrepreneurialstructurally as business inmost of the world — and,as a result, it has beenclosing the productivitygap with business veryrapidly. We now have theopportunity to end theaccidental divorce of thelast three centuries. Doingso represents a giganticproductivity opportunityfor business, for the citizensector, and for the ultimatecustomer and citizen.’Bill Drayton, Ashoka120www.iese.edu/research/pdfs/op-04-16-e.pdf121www.accenture.com/global/about_accenture/company_overview/corporate_citizenship/philanthropy/accenturepartnerships.htm122www.schwabfound.org/docs/web/linklaters_schwab_report.pdf123www.wikipedia.orgDon’t forget the social intrapreneur— Several interviewees also noted thatwe need to recall the potential of socialintrapreneurship, 120 with change agentsworking inside big organizations to drivesimilar agendas. One example of a socialintrapreneur we interviewed was GibBulloch, Programme Lead at AccentureDevelopment Partnerships. 121 He hasbeen part of a team for nearly five yearsthat has been working to switch thismajor consulting firm on to the potentialto help NGOs, social entrepreneurs,and major businesses to understandand manage the world’s great social,environmental, and governancechallenges.— Many people still see such effortsas part of corporate citizenship.This, as Bulloch puts it, means thatthey think ‘in terms of groomingdonkeys, sponsoring the opera or, atbest, painting schools. Rather than,say, helping Oxfam to become a highperformance organization.’ In the contextof Accenture’s 145,000 employeesworldwide, ADP’s 70-going-on-100 mayseem small beer, but the potential tocatalyze change — both inside Accentureand among its clients — is considerable.— The key point, however, is that oneway of achieving scale with entrepreneurialsolutions is to switch largeorganizations onto the new challengesand exploit their much greater leverageto further evolve and deploy thesolutions.A growing need to focus on governmentresponsibilities and roles— Governments need to do more to shapepublic policy, public sector targets andwider incentives — for example, inrelation to tax breaks for the funding ofsocial enterprise — if the sort of venturescovered above are to reach their fullpotential. This is an area that has beencovered by people like Linklaters, 122 butwhere considerable further thinking —and action — is needed.Panel 6.2Next stepsAmong the next steps planned forSustainAbility’s Skoll program are thefollowing:— Skoll World Forum 2007We will present the results of thisfirst survey, and also test some ofour conclusions for the health sectorin a dedicated session.— FeedbackWe will send the final report to allthose who took part, inviting theircomment. This will be used to shapefurther projects.— Roundtables and workshopsDuring 2007–08, we will organizeroundtables and workshops todebate, evolve, and communicatethe conclusions.47— Further deep/deeper divesWe aim to conduct at least two furtherexplorations into our target sectorsduring the coming 12 months.— Explore potential for developing‘Wiki-Manual’Given the interest in understandinghow to develop partnerships withmainstream business and otherpartners, we will consider developingeither a published Manual or evenan online manual along the linesof Wikipedia 123 on related themes.— BrokeringFurther develop our thinking, and over12–18 months, our offerings in thisarea.— Capital flowsInvestigate ways to increase the capitalflows into the social enterprise space.— 2008 surveyTest themes for the next survey.